KING’S LYNN: Mother and daughter remember floods
60 years on Ethel Clements and her daughter Beverley Lewis share their memories of the 1953 flood.
A mother and daughter have remembered the terrible night when flood waters rushed into their home.
Ethel Clements tied herself to her four-year-old daughter Beverley to ensure they would not be parted if the water levels rose even further.
They sheltered in an upstairs bedroom of their home in Diamond Street when the River Ouse overwhelmed parts of the town on Saturday, January 31.
Luckily Ethel, now aged 95, and 64-year-old Beverley survived that night, along with their husband and father Eddy, and have compiled a scrap book of clippings of the disaster.
Beverley, of Regency Avenue, said: “It was like a tsunami. There were massive waves and the water was dreadful.”
Eddy had planned to go to the pictures that night but heard about the floods and headed back home, after parking his converted American car on what he hoped would be higher ground. Then he dashed back home to warn his wife and daughter, who were in the yard collecting coal.
The family gathered up all their treasured photographs and possessions upstairs
Ethel, who now lives in Briar House, in Losinga Road, Lynn, said: “I tied Beverley to me with a dressing gown cord. If one went, two would go.”
The water was eventually lapping up the stairs and Eddy, with the help of a neighbour, tried to create an escape route, if necessary, by tying an old ship’s rope to the roof.
During that dreadful night, the family had witnessed two deaths but were huddled in a room in a bid to keep warm. Beverley was wearing a red coat and hat which her mother had made for her but the hat was later eaten by a giraffe which was visiting Lynn in a circus the following year.
Beverley said: “There was a banging during the night. Mum had laid the table for tea and the milk bottle was hitting the ceiling.”
The family was evacuated to Gaywood the following morning when the clean-up operation started.
Beverley was one of the youngsters who sang to the Queen when she came to visit Gaywood Park Secondary School. Her father however waved his broom to the Queen as she passed in her car while he was cleaning up his home.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Friday 24 May 2013
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